Aged just 31, Malalai Joya is the youngest MP in one of the world's toughest political arenas in the world right now: Afghanistan.She's a remarkably bold and tenacious woman who is not afraid to speak out against the corruption under President Karzai's government - so much so that she's survived five assassination attempts. She states: "My enemies are trying to eliminate me. I'm not the first but I believe no power is able to hide the truth."
That truth, according to Joya, is that the nation currently has a "warlord, drug-lord government" which rules over a population where 18 million people are living on less than one dollar a day and where there is "injustice, insecurity, joblessness, poverty and corruption."
Tomorrow, Afghanistan holds massively important elections. The eyes of the world have been on the nation so much of late and will stare even more so in the days ahead. Is there a chance of a brighter future? Joya is skeptical - she thinks the elections are a "showcase of the US government" with the next Afghan president being "selected behind the closed doors of the White House".
Reading about her on the train home and on the internet since, I believe for there to be peace in Afghanistan, the country needs more Malalai Joyas: people willing to stand up against the injustices in that place. Of course, it's a hugely dangerous thing to do, which can cost the lives of you, your familyand your friends.
I hope and pray that a wave of change might come about in this beautiful and misrepresented country - and that truth might be the real winner of these elections.
Read 'The big lie of Afghanistan' by Malalai Joya in The Guardian by clicking here.
Photo credit: AfghanKabul
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Fascinating stuff, Doobs. Think she's right in terms of US control. Fearing that Democracy might be undermined by the one superpower's hegemony is often unfairly portrayed as some kind of conspiracy theory, but ask Palestinians in Gaza what happened to them when they voted, democratically, for a party that Europe and the US deemed undesirable.
ReplyDeleteShe's a brave woman for speaking out.